Musical Episode #058 : 45s from The Knight Brothers Universe

• Listen to this podcast on Mixcloud
• Listen to this podcast as a Spotify playlist here (though note, spotify doesn’t have all / many of the songs featured on the site so some playlists may be incomplete or feature slightly different versions than the original 45s I’m referring to here.)
• Download the podcast here.

Today’s podcast is a special one for me, it tracks the career and related music of one of my favorite soul duos of all time Jimmy Diggs and Richard Dunbar/Knight, better known as The Knight Brothers. Today’s podcast follows their recordings as The Knight Bros, along with their Doo Wop group that preceded it The Starfires, Diggs’ contemporaneous work with The Carltons, some song writing for other artists and finally Knight’s work as part of the triumvirate Knight-Bridges-Eaton, better known as The Brothers of Soul.

The Starfires -the DC group not to be mixed up with the NY group- formed in the late 50’s touring the east coast and after attracting the attention of Decca released two sides recorded in Nashville in 1958. The records didn’t make sufficient noise and the group went their separate ways though it wouldn’t be long before Knight and Diggs crossed paths again- purportedly meeting up on the bus in 1962 and decided to give it another shot as a duo.

Bo Diddley moved to DC at the prompting of violinist Eddie Drennon in 1957 and lived there until 1967, Diddley liked being near the Howard Theater, and centrally located between NYC and The South, by his account he was driving and traveling all the time, not taking up flying until 1968. Diddley was actively recording and scouting during his time in DC, his Bo Diddley Was A Gunslinger Record was recorded there and along with The Knight Brothers brought Billy Stewart and a young Marvin Gaye as a member of The Moonglows.

Diddley’s connection with Chess brought them to the New York offices. In 1963 Knight and Diggs move to the city to record and are paired with Bert Berns for Love Can’t You Hear me though Berns uncredited because of his exclusive contract and Herb Cohen. Their output is really wonderful but their few 45s don’t go anywhere and the Knight Brothers take a break in 1964. During this time Diggs is working with another DC group The Carltons trying a slightly different, smoother sound; if you weren’t looking at the label you’d swear it was The Impressions on the stereo. After The Carltons records didn’t make much noise Diggs and Knight give it another go, being brought out to Chicago to record with Billy Davis where they strike gold with Temptation Bout To Get Me in 1965. They tour based on the success of the record and have a few more sessions for Chess including a productive one with Burgess Gardner and Monk Higgins though they didn’t produce any hits and a session that was never released.

During this time Jimmy Diggs has a few compositions out there along with a lot of groups covering Temptation Bout To Get Me but their time with Chess was up and the duo moved to Mercury under Jerry Butlers Fountain Productions releasing two good sides but not having chart success they deserved.

During this time Richard Knight was working in Dodge assembly plant in Detroit connects with Fred Bridges who had been working as a writer for a number of labels and groups in the area and had a few releases out as a solo artist. They started doing work for the LaBeat label where they meet the third member of Brothers of Soul Bobby Eaton. 1967 during riots they work on “Dream” a track they would see recorded under a variety of names. Jimmy Diggs at this point fades and I don’t know of any work of his during this time.

The trio of Knight – Bridges – Eaton was approached by owners of Sidra studios to help them record The Precisions who would be released on Drew, the studio’s label, and it’s during this session they meet and sign with Ric Williams. Williams had formed his Zodiac label and brought them on as writers primarily for Ruby Andrews (who had recorded Casanova at Sidra) but also as artists as Williams tries to grow his recording empire. He releases their first four tracks on Boo which he started for them. The relationship with Williams was fruitful with the trio recording under their own names as solo artists, duos and as The Brothers of Soul along with writing songs for Williams’ growing stable of artists and labels.

In 1970 Richard Knight gets in legal trouble and replaced by Ben Knight, The Brothers of Soul continue working with Stax artists brought down by Don Davis from Detroit. They released two final records with Ben Knight as lead before calling The Brothers of Soul quits though music still continued with Brothers of Soul members on sessions at Tower and Tera Shirma recording backups for Holland Dozier Holland’s Invictus. Along with The Debonairs and The Adorables Brothers of Soul were the male backing group on a majority of those recordings, including the band parts for the Chairmen of The Board. Bridges would later continue in music running the Four Tops studio and becoming their manager until ill health took him off the road in the 90s when he started focusing on gospel music.

Richard Knight continued in music and performed through the 70’s and 80’s with a version of the Doo Wop group The Orioles and then with Billy Pickney’s Original Drifters from the 90’s into the 2000’s.
Less is known about Jimmy Diggs though I did find he had converted to Islam and is now known as Mustafa Diggs and was playing shows, last I could find was the early 2000’s.

That’s all for the Knight Brothers story. I hope you enjoyed the podcast and follow some of the trails brought up here, it’s definitely a rewarding path!

Until next time,

-George / Snack Attack

Tracklist:

The Starfires – Three Roses (Decca, 1958)
The Starfires – Love Is Here To Stay (Decca, 1958)
The Knight Bros. – Second Hand Lover (Checker, 1963)
The Knight Bros – City Life (Checker, 1964)
The Carltons – Easy Living (Argo, 1964)
Andy Mack – Later Than You Think (Chess, 1964)
The Carltons – Ooh Baby (Argo, 1964)
The Knight Bros. – Temptation Bout To Get Me (Checker, 1965)
The Knight Bros. – She’s A-1 (Checker, 1966)
Billy Butler and The Enchanters – Love Grows Bitter (Brunswick, 1967)
Ruby Andrews – You Made A Believer Out Of Me (Zodiac, 1969)
The Precisions – A Place (Drew, 1968)
Brothers of Soul – I Guess That Don’t Make Me A Loser (Boo, 1968)
Ruby Andrews – Everybody Saw You (Zodiac, 1970)
Candance Love – Wonderful Night (Aquarius, 1969)
Maxine Brown – Plum Outta Sight (Epic, 1968)
Chuck Bernard – Bessie Girl (Zodiac, 1969)
Brothers of Soul – Love Is Fever (Boo, 1970)
Brothers of Soul – A Lifetime (Boo, 1970)
The Brothers of Soul – You Better Believer It (Boo, 1970)
Richard Knight – Show Stopper (Allen, 1970)

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